Caring for Records & Archives in the Museum Information Resources & Glossary
1) Professional Organisations 2) Conduct and Ethics 3) Archive and Record Principles 4) Preservation, Storage & Handling 5) Records Management 6) Archival Description 7) Access to Archives & Outreach 8) Journals 9) Other resources 10) Funding 11) Training 12) Glossary (1) Professional Organisations Archives & Records Association (ARA) http://www.archives.org.uk/training/training.html Lead professional body for archivists, archive conservators and records managers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Over 2000 members. British Records Association (BRA) http://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/ Charity established in 1932, exists to encourage and assist the preservation, care, use and publication of historical records.
Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) http://www.irms.org.uk/ Foremost professional association for those engaged in the management, governance or utilisation of information and records.
International Council on Archives (ICA) http:// www.ica.org/3/homepage/home.html Dedicated to the effective management of records and the preservation, care and use of the world's archival heritage through its representation of records and archive professionals across the globe. Institute of Conservation (ICON) http ://www.icon.org.uk/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=10 Lead voice for the conservation of cultural heritage in the UK. Museums, Librarians, Archivists Group (MLAG) http://mlagblog.org/about / Society of American Archivists (SAA) http://www2.archivists.org/
(2) Conduct and Ethics ARA Code of Conduct http://www.archives.org.uk/membership/code-of-conduct.html ICA Code of Ethics http://www.ica.org/5555/reference-documents/ica-code-of-ethics.html A Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (Third Edition, 2002) http://www.concernedhistorians.org/content_files/file/et/72.pdf
(3) Archive and Record Principles Archives and the Public Good. Accountability and records on Modern Society Cox, RJ and Wallace, DA (2002) Quorum. Keeping Archives Ellis, J (ed) (1993) DW Thorpe. A Manual of Archive Administration Jenkinson, Sir Hilary (1937) Lund Humphries, reprinted 1965. Managing Records: A Handbook of Principles and Practice Shepherd, E and Yeo, G, (2003)
Towards Professionalism? Archives and Archivists in England in the 20th Century Shepherd, E (2004) University of London, PhD thesis. Modern Archives: Principles and Techniques Schellenberg, TR (1956) FW Cheshire.
(4) Preservation, Storage and Handling Preservation and Conservation for Libraries and Archives Balloffet and Hille, Chicago, American Library Press, 2005 Preserving Archives (Principles and Practice in Records Management and Archives) Forde, Helen (2013) London. Archive Buildings in the United Kingdom, 1977-1992 C.Kitching, Historical MSS Commission (HMSO, 1993) Archives Damage Atlas: a tool for assessing damage http:// www.nationaalarchief.nl/sites/default/files/docs/nieuws/archives_damage_atlas .pdf Integrated Pest Management for Collections (English Heritage) Kinglsey, H et al eds., 2001 https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/imported-docs/f j/guideline_insect_pest_management_at_eh_historic_props.pdf British Library & West Dean Collaboration Training Courses (replaces the British Library Preservation Centre) http://www.westdean.org.uk/CollegeChannel/CPD/BritishLibraryCourses.aspx The National Archives – Collections Care http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about%5Ccollection-care.htm Standards PD5454:2012 (previously BS5454:2002) Recommendations for storage and exhibition of archival documents; environmental stability and protection and display of archival material. http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/? pid=000000000030228041 PAS 198:2012 Specification for managing environmental conditions for cultural collections. http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/? pid=000000000030219669 The National Archives for Record Repositories Covering constitution and finance, staff, acquisition, access, storage and preservation. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information- management/standard2005.pdf BS 4971:2002 Repair and allied processes for the conservation of documents-Recommendations. http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030059782 NB: Currently under review Suppliers Museums Association (supplier links) http://www.museumsassociation.org/find-a-supplier Conservation Register http://www.conservationregister.com/ Conservation by Design http://www.conservation-by-design.co.uk/home.aspx?pagename=home High quality conservation storage and display products including furniture, showcases acid-free boxes, museum boards and specialist papers. Leather Conservation http://www.leatherconservation.org/ Conservation and restoration of objects (including books and other archival materials) of historic, cultural and artistic importance made wholly or partly of leather or its related materials.
Pelaw Packaging http://www.pelawpack.co.uk / Packaging including boxes and folders. Preservation Equipment Limited (PEL) http://www.preservationequipment.com / Wide range of materials and equipment for conservation and preservation of archives and works of art including boxes, folders and accessories. Ryder Boxes Ltd http://www.ryderbox.co.uk / Manufacturers of handmade conservation storage boxes and folders.
Secol Ltd http://www.secol.co.uk/ Europe's leading manufacturer of polyester film based archival storage and presentation systems.
(5) Records Management Managing Records: A Handbook of Principles and Practice Shepherd, E and Yeo, G, (2003) How to manage records in the e-environment McLeod, J and Hare, C (2006) Routledge London Museums Hub Records Management Toolkit (2010) http://www.museuminfo-records.org.uk/toolkits/RecordsManagement.pdf Archives & Records Management (ARA) ‘Know your Records’ Campaign http://www.archives.org.uk/images/documents/RMG/FINAL_Dont_Risk_It_Toolkit_J uly14.pdf Standards BS/ISO Records Management ISO 15489-1-2: 2001 Information & documentation-records management: http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030055690
BS 4783 Storage, transportation and maintenance of magnetic media in data processing and information storage Parts 1-8, 1988-94. http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000000181502 **Under Review**
Electronic Records Managing digital records without an Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) The National Archives, 2012. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/managing- electronic-records-without-an-erms-publication-edition.pdf
(6) Archival Description The Management of information from Archives Cook, M (1999) Gower, Aldershot. The Archival Fonds: from theory to practice Eastwood, T (1992) Bureau of Canadian Archivists. A manual of Archive Administration Jenkinson, Sir Hilary (1937) Lund Humphries, (reprinted 1965) A Manual of Archival Description Proctor, M and Cook, M (2000) Gower, Aldershot Standards EAD (Encoded Archival Description) http://www.loc.gov/ead/
ISAD(G) General International Standards Archival Description, 1999 http:// www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD%28G%29.pdf ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families http://www.ica.org/10203/standards/isaar-cpf-international-standard-archival- authority-record-for-corporate-bodies-persons-and-families-2nd-edition.html Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names National Council of Archives (NCA) 1997 https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/naming- rules.pdf Archive Collection Management Systems Adlib http://www.adlibsoft.com/products/archive-software Archives Hub [EAD editor] http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/eadeditor/ Calm http://www.axiell.co.uk/calm-for-archives Modes for Windows http://www.modes.org.uk/
(7) Access to Archives and Outreach Copyright for Archivists and Users of Archives Padfield, Tim, London, Facet, 2004 **NB: 5th Edition due out in April 2015** Intellectual Property Office http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ NB: Changes to UK copyright law took place in June and October 2014. See the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) guidelines about how these affect your museum. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-copyright-law Managing Archives: Foundations, principles and practice Williams, C Oxford, Chadox, (2006) https://books.google National Archives Document Handling guidelines http :// www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/visit/document-handling.htm National Archives Discovery http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Includes ‘record creators’, (formerly National Register of Archives NRA) and ‘Find an Archive’ (formerly ARCHON). Public Services Quality Group (PSQG), a Standard for Access to Archives (2003) http://www.archives.org.uk/images/documents/access_standard_2008.pdf Intended to guide archive services in the management of access and may also be used by archive services, users and third parties as a means of assessing the quality of a service.
(8) Journals Archivaria (Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) Archival Science Archives and Museums Informatics (USA) Archives and Manuscripts (Society of Australian Archivists (SAA) Business Archives, Principles and Practice (Business Archives Council, BAC, UK) Records Management Journal (UK) The Journal of the Archives and Records Management Association (Archives and Records Association, ARA)
(9) Other Resources Listserves Professionals, students and others add queries, questions, thoughts & job advertisements. UK Archives: Listerve name: archive-nra [email protected] UK Records Management: Listserve name: RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK [email protected] (10) Funding/Grant Bodies Arts Council England: PRISM (Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material) http ://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/apply-for-funding/prism / EERAC (East of England Regional Archive Council http:// www.hertsmemories.org.uk/page.aspx?id=891 **NB: Next deadline probably March 2015.** Esmee Fairbain Foundation http://esmeefairbairn.org.uk/ Heritage Lottery Grants http://www.hlf.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT) http://www.nmct.co.uk / **NB: Next deadline 1 st April 2015.** Pilgrim Trust http://www.thepilgrimtrust.org.uk/ The National Archives Cataloguing Grants Programme http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/cataloguing-grants- programme.htm
(11) Training Professional Courses Aberystwyth University http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/dis/courses/ Northumbria University https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/study-at- northumbria/courses/information-and-records-management-dl-dtpifr6/ University College Dublin http://www.ucd.ie/historyarchives/graduateprogrammes/maprogrammes/schofha_ma _archives/ University of Dundee http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cais/ University of Glasgow http://www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/informationmanagementpreservationdigital archivesrecordsmanagement/ University of Liverpool http://www.liv.ac.uk/archive-and-records-management/ University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/taught/pg Archives and Records Association (ARA) Core Training Coures http://www.archives.org.uk/training/core-training.html Copyright, Audience engagement, Freedom of Information, Archives & Volunteers, Digital preservation, E-records management, New and refurbished archive buildings. British Library & West Dean College Collaboration http://www.westdean.org.uk/CollegeChannel/CPD/BritishLibraryCourses.aspx Programme of courses in preservation and collection care for libraries. The Archive-Skills Consultancy Ltd http://www.archive-skills.com/index.php Archives and records management training and consultancy. Creating Capacity, Hopkins Van Mill http://www.creatingcapacity.org/index.aspx Training to the Heritage sector. (12) Glossary Definitions taken from a number of national and international standards and organisations [in brackets] including: A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology Richard Pearce-Moses http://files.archivists.org/pubs/free/SAA-Glossary-2005.pdf
Dictionary of Archival Terminology International Council of Archives, ICA. 1999. http://www.ciscra.org/mat/
International Standard for Archival Description (ISAD(G)) http://www.icacds.org.uk/eng/ISAD%28G%29.pdf Access Terms and conditions of granting permission to use archives and collections in a repository; access may be restricted in some instances because of confidentiality, the fragile state of the documents or statutory requirements eg. Data Protection Act. [British Records Association BRA, Glossary]
Accession ...group of records or other materials....may be acquired by gift, bequest, purchase, transfer, retention schedule, or statute. An accession may be part of a larger, existing collection. An accession added to existing collections is sometimes called an accretion or an accrual. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Accountability The principle that individuals, organizations and the community are responsible for their actions and may be required to explain them to others. [International Standard ISO/TR15489-1]
Acquisition Materials physically and legally transferred to a repository as a unit at a single time. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Appraisal- archives The selection of records for permanent preservation as archives by analysing their value or potential value as archival material. [British Records Association, BRA, Glossary]
Appraisal – records management Assigning a value to records which helps to decide how long they should be retained. [British Records Association, BRA, Glossary] Archives Records which are recognised as having long term significance [Shepherd and Yeo ‘Managing Records: A Handbook of Principles and Practice’ 2003]
Archivist An individual responsible for appraising, acquiring, arranging, describing, preserving, and providing access to records of enduring value, according to the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control to protect the materials’ authenticity and context. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Arrangement The organisation of archival material according to archival principles of Provenance and Original Order; where the latter does not exist the archivist will devise an arrangement based on the perceived inter-relationship of the documents. [British Records Association, BRA, Glossary]
Cataloguing The process of providing access to materials by creating formal descriptions to represent the materials and then organizing those descriptions through headings that will connect user queries with relevant materials. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Collection Whole of the records regardless of form of medium, organically created and/or accumulated by a person, persons, or corporate body in the course of that creators activities and functions’ [International Council of Archives, ICA, Dictionary of Archival Terminology, 1999]
Copyright A form of protection provided by law to the creators of original intellectual works, securing their exclusive right to reproduce or publish the works. [ARMA International, 2007, Glossary of Records and Information Management Terms] NB: Changes to UK law took place in June and October 2014. See the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) guidelines about how these affect your museum. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-copyright-law
Description The process of capturing, analyzing, organizing and recording information that serves to identify, manage, locate and explain archival materials and the context of records. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Disposal The transfer of records, especially noncurrent records, to their final state, either destruction or transfer to an archives. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Document 1. Similar to record and often used interchangeably. Tends to be evidence of a single transcation, often with strong legal connotations. 2. A single item in a record group. [British Records Association, BRA, Glossary] EAD (Encoded Archival Description) A standard used to mark up (encode) finding aids that reflects the hierarchical nature of archival collections and that provides a structure for describing the whole of a collection, as well as its components. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
File Organised unit of documents grouped together either for current use by the creator or in the process of archival management because they relate to the same subject, activity or transaction.
Finding Aid Reference material such as catalogues, lists, and indexes providing information on the records and made available in the repository. [British Records Association, BRA, Glossary]
Fonds The whole of the records, regardless of form or medium, organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular person, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator’s activities and functions. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
ISAD(G) International Standard for Archival Description (General) An International Standards Organisation for information documentation and records management. An international standard that establishes principles for creation, capture, maintenance and management over time in appropriate systems of records, irrespective of their format. [International Council of Archives, ICA, Dictionary of Archival Terminology, 1999]
Item The smallest intellectually indivisible archival unit, e.g., a letter, memorandum, report, photograph, sound recording. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Manuscript A handwritten or typed document. A typed document is more precisely called a typescript; - manuscripts - documents of manuscript character usually having historical or literary value or significance. The term is variously used to refer to archives, to artificial collections of documents acquired from various sources usually according to a plan but without regard to provenance, and to individual documents acquired by an archives because of their significance. [International Council of Archives, ICA, Dictionary of Archival Terminology, 1999]
Original Order The organization and sequence of records established by the creator of the records. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Personal Papers The private documents accumulated by or belonging to an individual and subject to his/her disposition. [International Council of Archives, ICA, Dictionary of Archival Terminology, 1999]
Preservation Processes and operations involved in ensuring the technical and intellectual survival of authentic records through time. International Standard ISO/TR15489-1
Provenance The relationship between records and the organizations or individuals that created, Accumulated and/or maintained and used them in the conduct of personal or corporate Activity. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Record Recorded information in any form or medium, created or received and maintained, by an organization or person in the transaction of business or the conduct of affairs. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Records Management The field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records. [International Standard ISO/TR15489-1]
Repository A place where things can be stored and maintained; a storehouse. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology]
Respect des fonds Respect for the principle of provenance that the archives of an agency or person are not mixed or combined with those of other agencies or people. [Ellis, Judith, ed. Keeping Archives. 2nd edition.]
Series Documents arranged in accordance with a filing system or maintained as a unit because they result from the same accumulation or filing process, or the same activity; have a particular form; or because of some other relationship arising out of their creation, receipt, or use. A series is also known as a records series. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Subfonds A subdivision of a fonds containing a body of related records corresponding to Administrative subdivisions in the originating agency or organization or, when that is not possible, to geographical, chronological, functional, or similar groupings of the material itself. When the creating body has a complex hierarchical structure, each sub-fonds has as many subordinate sub-fonds as are necessary to reflect the levels of the hierarchical structure of the primary subordinate administrative unit. [General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)]
Vital Record Records vital to the continuity of business in cases of emergency or after a disaster. [International Council of Archives, ICA, Dictionary of Archival Terminology, 1999]
XML (Extensible Markup Language) A standard to promote sharing information over the Internet by specifying ways to describe the information's semantic structure and to validate that the structure is well formed. [Society of American Archivists SAA, Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology] ______Sandra Freshney Archivist, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences [email protected] June 2014, Updated January 2015